


Reassurance

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-22
Updated: 2013-10-22
Packaged: 2017-12-30 04:29:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1014091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Do spirit animals have to eat?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reassurance

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Sentinel Thursday

As Jim entered the loft, Blair's attention was drawn from the venison stir-fry he was preparing - meat given to him by one of his students, whose father went out shoooting, as a thank you for the tutoring that had pulled his average from C+ to A-.

"Smells good, Chief," Jim said. "What is it?"

"The last of the venison Tony Laird gave me on Monday," Blair said. He sighed. "You know, man, I'm really glad both of our spirit animals are predators; I'm not sure I could bring myself to eat the meat of any animal that was my spirit animal, or yours."

"I wonder if spirit animals have to eat?" Jim asked. "And if they do, do they hunt other spirit animals?"

"You'd think they'd have to, wouldn't you," Blair said. "But if they do, what happens to the people whose spirit animals they eat?"

"Maybe they're already dead," Jim suggested.

"Possible," Blair said. "Let's just not think about it, and enjoy our dinner."

***

The black jaguar padded steadily through the jungle, intent on returning to his den as quickly as possible. He could have run, but only in short spurts, for he was an ambush predator; if anything he was hunting could dodge his initial charge and run, maintaining a good speed, he would run out of immediate energy in just two or three hundred yards and abandon the chase.

He reached the den, to discover that his friend the wolf had had a successful hunt; the partly-eaten carcase of a deer lay there, over half of it left, with wolf lying beside it. Panther went to him and licked his face in greeting. Wolf licked him back, then he turned and began to eat.

Theirs was a strange life, he reflected. Some of the animals in this jungle were, like Wolf and him, spirit animals, yet even as spirit animals they needed to eat. Some spirit animals were predators; others were prey species, but somehow all the spirit animals could recognize each other, and in general the predators never hunted the deer, small mammals or birds that were also spirit animals even though they were happy to catch and eat the ones that weren't; and in general the prey species didn't seem to hold any grudge against the predators for eating their 'mortal' kin. There were a few exceptions, of course, where the human half of the mystic pairing was warped, evil, and the spirit animal perforce reflected that, but those exceptions were indeed few.

His hunger satisfied, Panther began to groom himself, not surprised when Wolf rose, crossed to him, and took over cleaning the blood from his face. And then they moved into the cave that was their den, curled up together and went to sleep.

***

Next morning, Blair woke feeling oddly reassured. He wasn't sure why, but somehow, now, he was convinced that whatever their species, spirit animals lived in harmony. 


End file.
